Fossil of colossal wombat ancestor unearthed in Australia

Australian paleontologists have uncovered a near-complete skeleton of an ancient, and gigantic,
ancestor to the common wombat. Diprotodon
optatum was the biggest marsupial that ever lived, and at two
metres tall it would stand shoulder to shoulder with a rhinoceros or a car.

It was also about 3.5 metres from nose to tail and weighed
as much as three tonnes. When an example of the beast was first
discovered in the 1830s it was the first prehistoric animal discovered in Australia, and still prevails
as Oz's most-recognised megafauna.

This latest find -- from the University of New South Wales,
the Queensland Museum, the University of Queensland and a few
enthusiastic school kids and community members -- represents the
most complete skeleton of Diprotodon found, and the most northerly
specimen known.

An arm bone (humerus) of the whopping marsupial was first
unearthed in 2010 at Floraville Station, along the Leichhardt River
between Burketown and Normanton, in the Gulf of
Carpentaria.

The researchers went back recently to excavate the animal's
skull, jaw bones and the rest of its limbs and body. They hope
that the near-complete nature of the skeleton will provide some
much-needed answers to various questions about the popular
beast.

For example: what brought the Diprotodon to its end sometime
in the last 50,000 years? Overkill by aboriginal Australians has been blamed, as has climate change. This
specimen's age, for one thing, could go a long way to answering
that question.

Floraville Station has been a small treasure trove of
paleontological finds during the Diprotodon's excavation.
Researchers also found giant short-faced kangaroos, prehistoric crocodiles and a giant goanna
lizard.